Welcome back to the Daily Poem here on the Close Reeds Podcast Network. I'm David Kern. Today is,

well, you know what today is. It's Valentine's Day, February 14th, 2020. So naturally,

that means that I need to read a love poem. If there's any day that a love poem should be read on,

I suppose it's this one,

depending on your feelings about Valentine's Day.

So today I'm going to share one of the great love poems ever written,

also one of the great story poems ever written.

Edgar Allan Poe's Annabelle Lee.

Might seem a little bit contrary to read Annabelle Lee on Valentine's Day, but I don't think so.

I think it's a great love poem, and here it is.

It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea that a maiden there lived, whom you may know by the name of Annabelle Lee. And this maiden, she lived with no other

thought than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child in this kingdom by the

sea. But we loved with a love that was more than love, I and by Annabelle Lee,

with a love that the winged seraphs of heaven coveted her and me. And this was the reason

that long ago in this kingdom by the sea, a wind blew out of a cloud, chilling my beautiful Annabalee,

so that her high-born kinsman came and bore her away from me to shut her up in a sepulchre in this

kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, went envying her and me yes that was the reason as all men know in this kingdom by the sea that the wind came out of the cloud by night chilling and killing my annabelle

but our love it was stronger by far than the love of those who were older than we, of many

far wiser than we.

And neither the angels in heaven above nor the demon down under the sea can ever dissever

my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabelle.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams of the beautiful Annabelle and the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes of the beautiful Annabelle.

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